


The Beauty of the Beast

by AshMish111



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Beauty and the Beast Elements, F/M, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28723272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshMish111/pseuds/AshMish111
Summary: She’s an outcast, and so is he. Thrown together under unusual circumstances, two lonely souls find a little common ground, and a little acceptance where they never expected. Beauty and the Beast AU... with a twist!
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha
Comments: 78
Kudos: 72





	1. The Stagnant Town

The hot morning sun washed through the window onto the menagerie of glasses and vials on the kitchen counter, casting bits of rainbow light across the walls. With bare feet Kagome strode across the floor, shedding her shawl in the face of the sweltering summer air, and lit a fire in the stove to make their tea.

The distant sounds of the waking village could be heard in the stillness of the hours after dawn, and Kagome sighed.

“Another day just like the one before it, just like the one that will come after, too.”

She filled the kettle and placed it on the stove top, tossing a few more pieces of wood inside for good measure, and then began the process of kneading dough and cracking eggs for their breakfast.

Her grandfather would wake soon and no doubt head straight to his workshop if she didn’t have food ready to distract him with first.

She heard him shuffling around just as the bread came out of the oven and she set it on the table with the eggs and butter.

“Grandpa! Come eat before you disappear for the day.”

He grumbled about disrespectful grandchildren as he emerged from his room and sat at the table, and Kagome kissed his head as she sat his tea in front of him.

“You need food if you’re going to be filling orders all day, you know that. Or should we repeat the fainting episode we had last month.”

He balked at that and then accepted a slice of warm bread with no more complaints.

He’d been put on strict bedrest for a week after that incident, and he’d rest meant no working. If there was one thing her grandfather hated, it was not working on his tinctures and remedies.

‘The village needs medicine! Who else will give it to them but me?!’ Was something Kagome heard a lot when something was trying to slow her grandfather down. Even old age got the lecture when it dared make his bones ache or his back hurt.

“My girl, you’re too bossy with your old grandfather.”

She heard the affection under his words and smiled at him. If she didn’t boss him around, who would? Each other was all they had left, and she wasn’t going to let him work himself into an early grave if she could help it.

“Well, I’ve got to go into town for some things. I won’t forget the specialty herbs you asked for. And I’ll need to get more wool to knit you more socks. You’ve got to start wearing shoes in your workshop grandpa, you wear your socks out shuffling around in there without them.”

“Bah! Shoes slow me down Kagome. I’ve got to get this medicine-“

“I know I know, you’ve got to get the villagers their medicine.” She replied, sweeping by him with a pat on his head while grabbing her basket and tying her apron around her waist.

“Be back in time for lunch, granddaughter. The carpenter is delivering today and I have no time to be receiving orders!”

She paused at the door’s threshold for a moment as that news sank in, and then she plastered in a smile.

“Alright grandfather, I'll make sure to be home in time.”

She stepped out of the door and onto the path toward the village square, a new sense of dread settling on the line of her shoulders.

Dealing with the local carpenter could be a chore. He wasn’t cruel, but he was gruff and reclusive and taciturn. He never looked anyone in the eye, and preferred to take orders and make deliveries as quickly and quietly as possible. No one even knew his whole name! Kagome always felt hopelessly awkward around him with her need to make friendly chatter making her mouth run away from her.

‘Oh well, there’s nothing for it. Grandpa needed new shelves for his tinctures. Hopefully he won’t need to commission anything new for a while.’

The village was bursting with activity by the time she made it to its center market, but it was the same activity she’d seen time and again. The path through the center square was well trod and the merchants danced around it well practiced and in perfect sync, like well oiled gears in a grandfather clock. The baker brought out massive baking sheets of buns and breads, the cobbler threw his windows open to let out fumes and wood shavings, a heard of goats marched across the path to the pen set up by their master who sold their milk and cheese, and the raucous clucking of chickens and murmur of voices haggling prices was the music of the day.

So much to see and hear and smell, but Kagome felt detached from it all.

She stopped and bought a hunk of cheese from the goat herder who barely grunted at her in acknowledgment; A dozen eggs from the lady with the chickens who side eyed her as she tucked them into her basket; several skeins of wool yarn from the cloth merchant who was polite enough today to answer her greeting with a smile; some more small glass vials and stoppers from a shop keep who looked down his nose at her, and then she breathed a sigh of relief that she’d reached the end of her shopping list.

With the weight of a hundred eyes on her back she scurried into the small, worn little library tucked into the space between to other shops, only relaxing when the door shut firmly behind her.

The owner of the library, a small, bald headed old man named Myouga smiled brightly at her and put down his feather duster to shuffle over and greet her.

“Ah my dearest Kagome, my most esteemed patron!”

Kagome giggled as he took her hand and kissed it.

“Oh Myouga, I’m your only patron.”

“Yes well, all the more reason to regard you as my favorite. No one else has ever shown me such loyalty! Now, what can I do for you this day, child?”

“I came to see if you’ve got anything new in stock!” She answered brightly, strolling over to the shelf that held the fiction books and perusing the titles she’d read a hundred times each.

“For that shelf, I’m afraid not.”

“That’s okay, I’ll just take this one again.” She slipped a thick book off the shelf and walked over to plop it on top of Myouga’s work desk, and then busied herself browsing a nearby shelf while he added her name and selection to his records.

“Say Myouga... did you happen to get in any books on healing magic like we spoke about?”

Myouga paused in his writing for a moment and glanced her way. She was trying very hard to retain a casual appearance, but he could read the interest in her unmistakably.

He shouldn’t be encouraging her, he knew that. She had a hard enough time getting along with the rest of the villagers who refused to understand her talents and interests, but who else did she have here?

“As a matter of fact my dear, I’m expecting a delivery of a few manuscripts on just such a subject in the coming weeks. I’ll be sure to send a note out when they arrive. You’ll get first pick of the litter, so to speak.”

His eyes glowed with understanding and his bushy mustache hid his smile, but she could read it in the lines and crinkles in his face.

“Thanks Myouga. Well, I’ve got to get going. Grandpa has a delivery from the carpenter I have to be home to receive. I’ll see you later!”

She stepped back out into the hot sun and pointed her feet toward home. The bustle of the market square was still in full bloom and she did her best to keep her head down and get through it unseen. She daydreamed about the cool spot under the thick foliage of a large, shady tree just outside of her house, and the sweet roll she’d purchased that was tucked in next to the book in her basket. The key components in her plan to blissfully wile away the morning until she had to deal with the Carpenter, and the only thing that could ruin her scheduled happiness was-

“Ah, What luck to run into such a lovely sight as you Kagome. You’re looking as radiant as ever.”

Dread and annoyance wound tight inside her chest and she fought hard not to grimace. Plastering on a smile that landed just this side of fake, Kagome looked into the eyes of the one person in the village she actively disliked and prayed this would be over as quickly and painlessly as possible.

“Good morning Naraku.”

His handsome face split into a glowing grin and the sun shined off his long, wavy tresses like a halo.

But Naraku, physically appealing as he was, was no angel. She may be the only one alive not blind to the way his selfishness and conceit bled from every line of his body, and he probably had no idea how many times she’d watched his face fall into disdain after speaking with someone, but she’d never been fooled by him. Everything about him set off all her alarms, and she wanted far, far away from him.

Unfortunately for her, Naraku wanted to keep her close.

“Well, I’ve got a busy, busy day. I’m afraid I must-“

He put his arm out to stop her attempt to slip around him and Kagome stiffened harshly to feel him touch her.

“Woah, not so fast my dear. I’ve been looking for you.”

“Oh... lucky me.”

If he saw her frown he ignored it, instead wrapping his arm around her shoulders and turning to lead her down the path toward her home.

“Lucky you indeed. As I’m sure you heard from the local gossip chains, I’m in search of a wife.”

“I don’t gossip Naraku, so I assure you I’ve heard no such thing. I wish you luck though, Kami knows there are countless young women in the village who would love to be your wife.”

She pasted on another grin to keep up appearances but the way his black eyes gleamed made her stomach twist with apprehension.

“They would all count themselves very lucky to be noticed by me, but none are so fortunate as that. No, I’ve come to declare my intention of taking YOUR hand in marriage, my sweet Kagome.”

She froze and nearly tripped as Naraku didn’t slow his stride. Stumbling to keep up, Kagome felt panic begin to tie her insides into knots and searched for an exit. Naraku has never been subtle in his interest in her, but so far, he hasn’t been this forward, either.

“Oh, uh... Naraku! I... I don’t know what to say!” She knew she sounded half hysterical, but marrying Naraku would probably top her list of worst potential nightmares. Saying no should be easy, no one had to marry anyone they didn’t want to in this day and age, but he had power and influence in the village as one of its richest and most well liked members. Letting him down easy would take finesse she wasn’t sure she had.

“You need say nothing my dear. Only let me reassure you of your impending happiness! All that is mine will be yours. Prestige, security, a good name, and in exchange I require only devotion and strong, healthy sons.”

The bread she’d had for breakfast turned to ash in her stomach and fought to come back up. Up head the path forked; one side led right to her door, the other went into the woods, a popular spot for canoodling couples, she'd come to find. Glancing up, she saw Naraku eyeing the entrance into the trees with dawning interest and his hold on her shoulder tightened marginally. It was time to make a run for it.

“Well! I have to say I’m surprised you’d stoop so low as to try and marry me. You know I’m not very popular.”

“But your beauty and sweetness are unrivaled my pet. You need not worry how you will be received as my wife, no one would speak ill of my choice.”

“Be that as it may, I fear I must decline your most... gracious offer.” She tried, setting aside that fact that he’d done no actual asking, merely informing her that she would be his wife as that’s what he wanted. “You see, I’m the only one who can take care of my grandfather. And oh! Would you look at the time! I must get home right away to help him mix medicine and welcome the carpenter so if you’ll excuse me I’ve really got to run.”

She spun out from under his arm and took off, racing down the rest of the path and not stopping until her door was shut and locked firmly behind her. Her heart pounded hard and fast and left her light headed and she panted harshly to catch her breath and slow her racing mind.

“Kagome child? That you back already?”

Her grandfather called from the back room where his workshop was set up, pulling her back to her immediate surroundings and out of her dark thoughts.

“Yes grandfather, it’s me!”

“Well?! Did you get my vials?!”

She laughed and sat her basket down on the kitchen table, digging around for the glass jars and containers he’d requested she pick up.

“Yes grandfather! I’m leaving them on the table!”

She arranged them carefully and pulled out the wrapped mince pie she’d picked up for him for his lunch, placing it next to his jars in easy reach.

Her own appetite had fled at first sight of Naraku, so she put her little sweet bun away in a cabinet before grabbing her book and retreating to her room to hide from the world and recover her senses.

Sometime later Kagome jolted awake to the sound of loud, insistent banging. She sat up and noticed the book she’d been reading lying facedown next to her and then glanced out her window, noting the position of the sun high overhead.

“Oh no! The carpenter!”

She sprang up from the mattress and in a blink she was at the door, frazzled and frenzied. She flung the door open while the carpenter was still mid-knock, and she blushed in embarrassment and quickly tried to tame the wild state of her hair.

“I’m so sorry! I must have fallen asleep. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”

He grunted and waited for her to step aside, and then walked in carrying a long shelf, two more learning against the side of the house. She watched him walk right to the kitchen, place the shelf across the table, and pull out a measuring tape.

He worked silently, as usual, and it never failed to make her feel antsy and awkward. She knew she didn’t fit in well with the villagers, though most of the time they tried to be polite. But the carpenter, Yash was the only name they knew him by, was even more of an outsider than she was. He was always wearing round goggles with dark glass lenses over his eyes, a brightly colored bandana tied around his head with a leather cap pulled down over it, and he rarely spoke directly to anyone, preferring to keep interactions to the barest minimum necessary to do his job. His craftsmanship and expertise were well respected and utilized but his brash personality usually left him the butt of some cruel joke or other, and it made Kagome feel as though they could be kindred spirits in this village that seemed intent of misunderstanding them.

But Yash the Carpenter had made himself clear: he did not want friends, so all her attempts at even simple, polite conversation were soundly rebuffed.

Just as she worked up the courage to offer him some tea or leftover bread from breakfast he huffed and yanked the shelf back off the table and walked quickly back to the door.

“S’too long.”

“W-What?” Kagome stammered, trying to catch up with such an abrupt shift in events, scrambling to keep up with the long strides of the retreating carpenter.

“Old man gave me the wrong measurements. Last time I let him talk me out of checking myself first. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Oh uh... okay, I’ll just-“ the door slammed shut and Yash was gone as quickly as he came. “I’ll just let him know.”

She stood and stared at the door awkwardly for a moment and then shook herself.

It was time to start their next meal, and she still had a book to read


	2. Best Laid Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH AND MENTIONS OF BLOOD

Another day, just like the one before.

Or it should have been, but as Kagome set the morning tea kettle on to boil, another chill ran down her spine. Everyday she woke and dreamed that something new and interesting would happen in her little village where nothing happened, and today seemed to be the day, but instead of simmering excitement, she felt nothing but dread hovering over her shoulder.

“Maybe I should stay inside today. It feels like a bad day to leave the house.” She whispered to herself, pouring a hot cup of freshly brewed tea and sipping it, hoping it would chase away the lingering anxiety, but then the tell-tale sounds of her grandfather waking sounded from his room.

“Kagome? Child? You awake? Don’t forget I need more of that herb for the baker’s ointment! He’ll be picking it up by dusk! Don’t tarry in those books!”

Kagome sighed and placed her tea back on the counter and watched the small plot of grass outside her kitchen window grow dark as the sun disappeared behind a cloud. That herb he needed couldn’t be purchased in town, she’d have to hike several miles through the forest to a meadow by a spring to collect the amount he needed. She’d be gone the better part of the day.

“And the Carpenter is coming back today. You know he can only come in the early evenings on Wednesdays so you’ll need to be back in time to receive my shelves!”

Kagome closed her eyes and sighed again.

‘The carpenter. Great. I forgot he couldn’t complete grandpa’s order yesterday. And all I wanted to do was hide from the day.’

“Kagome?!”

“I hear you grandpa! I’m just making breakfast and I’ll be on my way!”

When their bread was baked and their eggs were cooked and breakfast had been consumed, Kagome kissed her grandfather’s head, grabbed her basket and shawl, and set out for the day’s errands.

The trees overlooking the door to the little cottage owned by the Higurashi family grew tall and still at the edge of the forest. Not quite merchants, their house wasn’t located near the center square of the village, and the patriarch’s occupation as village healer meant there was a need for privacy for patients that put them outside of the residential circle. The cottage was fairly removed from village life, a decent walk from even the closest neighbor, on a quiet, removed path that lead further down the road and into the forest.

Few came this way unless they had to, and that suited Naraku just fine. The fewer witnesses he had for the day’s events, the better.

He’d been hiding right here and watching the door since just after sun up. Kagome had slipped out the door and gone somewhere hours ago, walking pointedly away from the village and further down the path leading into the forest. Where she was going was irrelevant, he wasn’t following her- yet.

But now that he was certain she was long gone from the vicinity of her home it was time to set his plans in motion.

He stepped out from behind the trees and and strolled casually up to the cottage door. Knocking soundly, he stepped back and put on his most cordial grin, listening to the old Higurashi man grumble under his breath as he shuffled to the door.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, keep your clothes on.” The door opened and Naraku’s grin widened and brightened, no sense starting off anyway but pleasantly unless it came down to it.

“Oh, Naraku. It’s you. Are you ill?”

“No I’m not, actually, I'm here to-“

“Well if you aren’t ill then be on your way, I’ve no time for social calls! Much too busy! Off you go!”

He made to shut the door in his face, but Naraku shoved his foot in the frame and caught the door on his arm.

“Ah, not so fast old man. I’m here to discuss Kagome. Perhaps I can come inside?”

“Kagome?” The elder Higurashi asked skeptically, easing off the door and allowing the other man to step inside. “What do you want to talk about her for?”

Naraku closed the door behind him and then stood in front of it, blocking it from view. He crossed his arms over his chest, he would remain civil for now, but he also would not be swayed.

“I’m here to request her hand in marriage.”

The old healer huffed and turned his back, shuffling over into the kitchen to put the cold kettle back on the fire.

“Nonsense. Kagome would never marry you and I won’t force the girl on anyone she won’t have.”

“But no one else here would be willing to take her, and you won’t live forever old man. What will happen when you die?”

“She’ll have this house and I’ve taught her my trade. The girl is strong, she’ll be fine.” Naraku watched as Kagome’s Grandfather continued to refuse to look at him and his anger swelled.

“You’re a fool if you think anyone in this village will accept a woman living alone as their healer, not after what happened with her mother and grandmother. As it is , I’m the only single man interested in taking her for a wife. With my fortune and good reputation, surely you’ve no real objections. I’m her only chance at security once you’re gone. I will leave here with the promise of her hand.”

“Then you’ll be staying a while.” The old man replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. He was a busy man with little time for leisure or social pleasures, but he knew his granddaughter, and he loved his granddaughter. Naraku had a point about her security once his life came to an end, but he wouldn’t push her into the arms of a man he’d heard her complain about more than once, whether she knew he was listening or not. He’d cross the bridge of her eventual marriage of convenience when the time came, and if that failed she could always join a convent.

Naraku seethed as he continued to stare at the old man’s back. The way he brushed off such a promising proposition of marriage to the most eligible bachelor of the village without so much as a polite backward glance was unthinkable. He’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but he’d waited long enough for them to come around on their own. He would get what he wanted, he always did.

He reached into the pocket of his coat, pulled out the large rock he’d hidden there, and then quietly crossed the small house with just a few long strides. Within one moment and the next, the elder Higurashi was left of the floor in a growing puddle of his own blood, and Naraku slipped out the door and into the woods.

The carpenter known as Yash sighed in tired agitation as he made his way across the outer perimeter of the village to the small house of the healer that sat on the outskirts. The only house farther from the village center was his own, and as it was, the Higurashi house was clear on the other side, so the journey there with his deliveries took way longer than he liked.

But there was nothing for it, the old man had given him the wrong measurements for the shelves he ordered so a second trip had been unavoidable. He’d known listening to the half senile old healer had been a bad idea but he was trying to save himself this very headache. There was no one around this far from the village residential areas so he pulled the uncomfortable goggles from his eyes and rubbed around the agitated skin. Pushing his goggles back into place, he took a second to scratch at his itchy scalp under his hat and bandana. This was his last delivery of the day before he was free to go home and strip all the restrictive nonsense away and he really couldn’t wait.

He pulled his horse and cart up to the door and was alarmed to find it standing ajar. Normally it was shut and bolted until you knocked, he’d never seen either Higurashi be so careless.

He dismounted his cart and secured his horse, and then approached the door of the house slowly and carefully.

“Hello? Carpentry delivery.” He called inside, pushing the door open wider and shivering a little at the still air inside.

A hoarse whisper sounded from the kitchen just off to the side. He followed the sound and his eyes widened in alarm to see Old Man Higurashi splayed across the floor in a cooling puddle of blood haloed around his head.

“Shit.” He cursed, rushing over and grabbing some stray cloth from the table. He lifted he elder up and supported him on his lap, holding the cloth to the wound on the back of his head.

“You must have fallen. Where’s your damn granddaughter? Why are you alone?”

He was weak, and his breathing was shallow, the healer found the strength to clutch at Yash’s wrist, and with urgency he stared him in the eyes.

“I... I didn’t fall.. Naraku.”

“Naraku did this? Why?”

“K-Kagome...”

Shaking his head, Yash did his best to communicate that he didn’t understand with as few words as possible.

“Listen... you must listen boy...”

Yash leaned down closer to catch the whispery tone of the dying man in his arms. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been laying there bleeding, but it had been too long to make a difference now. The least he could do was hear the man’s final words.

Before he could force them out, the missing granddaughter returned.

“Grandfather I’m back with the herb you- oh kami! What’s happened?!”

Kagome raced over and grabbed her grandfather’s other hand, babbling incoherently in her shock and worry.

“Did you fall? Did you find him like this? We have to take him to his bed and help him, help me move him. Oh grandpa I’m so sorry, I’m never leaving the house again, I-“

“Kagome child. Stop.”

Kagome froze and focused on her grandfather’s quiet but urgent words, heart racing and mind spinning.

“This was Naraku’s doing. You must not let her fall into his hands. Yash, my boy, marry her. Please. No one else will have her.”

“Grandfather, you can’t possibly-“

“You must! You must marry her! Promise me! Promise me, boy, you take her- you take her and you-“

He broke down in a fit of rattling coughs and Kagome cried out in distress.

“Grandfather you must calm down, please!”

But with the last of his coughs went the last of his breath, and with one last shuddering sigh, the Higurashi Patriarch slipped away from life.

Silence fell in the cottage for several long, heavy moments, and then Kagome let out a hysterical sob.

“Oh no... oh no oh no oh no. He’s... he’s gone! And he’s right. I’m going to have to... I’m going to have to marry Naraku. No one else even likes me and I... I can’t make it here alone. They’d never trust me to make their medicine. I could leave... I could skip town and be a healer somewhere else. I know enough from grandpa’s lessons. I could go... but...”

She looked up at him, her blues eyes drenched and panicked and he felt something in him crumble just a little.

“But no village in its right mind would allow a strange woman in to treat their sick and elderly.”

His words were the final nail in the coffin and the damns on her heart broke. Her face crumpled and she pitched forward, burying her face in her grandpa’s chest and crying out her newfound grief and the hopelessness that hurried up to swallow her whole.

Yash watched her for a moment, looking so small and sad and helpless, and all his resolve and hesitation fled.

He didn’t know much about Kagome Higurashi except what things the villagers whispered about her when he was making his deliveries. She was as outcast as he was. As stupid as he thought it was, little villages like these just didn’t allow women to make their own way, and the big cities were too far away for any hope of her making it there. Naraku was her only hope at security now that her grandfather was gone. Naraku... or him.

He sighed and ran a hand roughly down his face and then squared his shoulders.

“I’ll do it.”

She sniffled and looked up into his face in confusion.

“I’ll marry you.”

Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, but in her shock she had blessedly stopped crying.

“You’ll what?”

“Look I know I ain’t exactly a catch, but I sure as hell ain’t Naraku.”

She blinked and then her brow furrowed.

“Wait.. you don’t like Naraku?”

“Feh!” He snorted, looking away and crossing his arms across his chest, scowling at the wall, flustered and uncomfortable and ready for the day to be over. “Naraku’s the biggest bastard I’ve ever known. He may have the rest of the town under his spell but I see through his bullshit.”

She sat quietly for several moments and then startled him by gently laying a hand on his shoulder. He’d been so preoccupied with his agitation he hasn’t even heard her get up.

“Thank you,” she breathed in relief, eyes shining with guilt and tiny embers of hope.

“Thank you so much Yash. I can’t even tell you how much you’ve just helped me.”

“Keh,” he brushed her off, pushing off the counter he’d been leaning on to head for the door. "Just get your stuff together. I gotta go let the sherif know what’s happened so we can get your grandfather taken care of.”

Before she could speak another word he slipped out in the dying sunlight and set off toward the village square.

Yash sat frozen solid in the drivers seat of his cart, steering toward his home while his new wife cried silently beside him.

It was late into the night now; by the time he’d returned with the sherif and priest to report the death of the village healer, the sun was just falling below the horizon. He’d found Kagome sitting with her grandfather’s body, holding his hand and crying, but she’d stepped aside and quietly let them wrap him in a sheet for burial.

She’d tried to tell the sherif that he hadn’t fallen, that he’d been murdered by the town’s most popular and richest merchant, but she’d been scoffed at and written off as a woman gone crazy with guilt.

While he and the sherif dug a grave next to the vegetable garden, the priest said a prayer for the man’s soul, and then carefully arranged him in the coffin they’d brought from the church basement. When he was buried completely, Kagome laid a bouquet of wildflowers atop the mound of dirt, and then collected her things without a word.

They dropped the sherif back off in the village, stopped back by the church and asked a very tired and shocked priest to marry them right away, signed the marriage records, and set off on their way to home.

Most of the night was spent riding to his remote cottage far from the village and through the woods, and though her crying left him feeling tense and powerless, he couldn’t begrudge her her tears. Her entire life had been upended in just a few hours, and her last remaining family was gone.

He sighed and some of the tension in his shoulders eased as spied the break in the trees that lead to the glade where his house sat.

Kagome gasped quietly when it came into view, and he had to admit that the full moon overhead reflecting off the stream that ran around the the right perimeter and illuminating the flowering bushes made it look very picturesque. It was a good first impression, for the house anyway; the gods only knew what she imagined he’d be bringing her home to.

He parked his cart, helped her dismount, took his horse to the pen, and then led her inside.

“This way,” he beckoned, walking deeper into the house, and as she followed he could feel her stiffen with fear.

They came upon a door and he opened if for her, standing aside to allow her to walk slowly inside. She stopped in the middle of the room and dropped her bags, eyes on the bed pushed against the wall under the window and he eyed her for just a moment.

“Well, goodnight.”

She gasped and spun around, but he shut the door firmly behind him and strode to his room on the other end of the house.


	3. Idyllic Isolation

There were no curtains on the window her bed was pushed up under, but the sheer exhaustion of the endless night before had allowed Kagome to sleep through the bright morning sunshine and into the early afternoon.

When she finally woke it was thanks to an empty stomach and a body desperate to replenish the water she’d cried out before falling asleep.

She sat up slowly in the bed and gathered her bearings, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings of her new room in her new home.

Her new room, that she'd stayed in alone. As excruciating as it had been to comfort herself after the events of the day before, knowing that her new husband didn’t expect her to share his bed had been a relief. She was eternally grateful to him for keeping her from Naraku’s clutches, but she knew very little about him otherwise.

Her stomach growled and twisted painfully, pushing her out of the bed in hopes of food. Still wearing the clothing she’d worn yesterday, Kagome simply grabbed her shawl and crept quietly out of her bedroom door. She glanced all around for Yash, but she seemed to be alone, so she tip toed through the house to get to know the layout and find the kitchen.

It was bigger than her previous home with her grandfather, quite a bit bigger, with several different rooms behind closed doors she didn’t dare try to open yet.

In short order she found herself standing in the kitchen. This too was bigger than the one back home, with more counter space and several more cabinets and pantries. A quick hunt behind doors and in drawers produced the necessary ingredients for some bread and eggs, her usual morning breakfast, though it seemed her new husband had no tea at all. She mixed and kneaded, and while the bread baked and the eggs boiled she straightened up the mess and took stock of the dust coating the counters and lining the shelves. She found some rags and scraps of fabric stained with various shades of brown that’s she assumed related to carpentry, but they would work well enough. She sat them aside for after breakfast, but the larger size of the kitchen only made the task of cleaning take so long, and soon she found herself with nothing else to do. Normally her grandfather had some task or errand he needed her to run that would send her either into the village to buy supplies or into the surrounding woods and meadows to gather ingredients. If this didn’t take up enough time to fill her day before dinner, she had a book or two from the library to occupy her time.

Unfortunately, as she remembered from the ride the night before, Yash lived so far from the village proper that walking there was no longer an option, and since she didn’t know the first thing about hitching and driving a horse and buggy, she was stuck.

“Wait a second, just because I can’t go into town doesn’t mean I can’t go outside. I’ve never been in this part of the forest before!”

With so few of her own belongings she was ready in no time with her shawl around her shoulders, her hat on her head, and a basket with some bread and cheese for lunch.

The land outside her new home was breathtaking; lush grass and flowering bushes stretched out to the tree line, with a sparkling stream that cut through the far side of the yard.

She skipped up to its side and looked into the water which ran clear and cool with little fish swimming to and fro and pebbles worn smooth lining the bottom. It was shallow enough to cross on foot, so she removed her shoes just long enough to get to the other side and then she entered the forest. A forest was a forest was a forest, as far as she was concerned, so the look of the place was really no different than any other part of the forest she’d been in, but it felt different. The air seemed a little clearer and almost crackled with something new and unexplainable, the birds sang a little louder, the sounds of animal paws skittering across the leaves, twigs and sticks were much more abundant.

“Maybe it’s because it’s so far from the rest of the village. I bet Yash doesn’t come in here much, either, there’s not even a footpath worn in.”

She walked for some time, enjoying the unique kind of solitude you could only find surrounded by forest life. The trees opened into a small clearing carpeted with clover and well lit with sunlight, and Kagome walked to the center and stretched out on her back in the warm rays and closed her eyes with a sigh. A few tears slipped past her lashes and trailed down her face, and in the bright light of day and cushioned by soft clover, chittering squirrels and fluttering birds, letting the dams off her emotions felt less frightening than it had the night before.

She thought of her grandfather, surly, hardworking, loving, the only family she had left in the world, and let herself miss him and grieve his passing. She knew how practical he’d been and that if he could he’d be scolding her for wasting time on such things as sadness, but she thought taking at least a few minutes to honor his passing would be appropriate, she had loved him dearly.

“Stop that blubbering, girl, there’s work to be done!” He’d say with a pat on her hand as he passed by, a scowl on his face but a twinkle in his eye.

She laughed a watery laugh as she pictured him just that way, and she felt a few pieces of her heart stitch themselves together.

The sound of a stick breaking startled her. She sat up abruptly, whipping her head around to find the cause of the noise. A pair of luminous green eyes peered at her from under a nearby bush, and she froze in alarm as they were obviously not animal eyes.

“Uh... hello?”

The eyes blinked and then disappeared, Kagome stayed rooted to her spot in the center of the small clearing, watching and waiting, ready to bolt at a moment’s notice.

A very small form peeked around the edge of the bush, frightened and unsure, with a shock of red hair in a messy heap.

“Oh, you’re a child! Are you lost?”

He hunkered down, retreating more behind the bush and staring in distrust, but Kagome’s heart twisted at how small and alone he was.

“Are you hungry? You must be if you’re alone. Here, I have some food.”

She reached into her basket and pulled out the hunk of cheese and bread, tossing them closer to the child so she wouldn’t spook him by moving closer.

He eyed her and the food for a moment, and then she gasped when he emerged fully and hopped toward the food, sniffing it tentatively before snatching it and hiding again.

‘Oh my gosh... he’s a fae child!’

His little ears came to a point and his legs had paws and claws instead of feet, telltale signs of an inhuman heritage. She’d heard of such beings being whispered and warned about, people born of magic who lived wildly between this world and another, but she’d never seen one.

“You don’t have to be afraid, I won’t hurt you. My name is Kagome. What’s yours?”

He didn’t come out of hiding, nor did he answer her, but his eyes did seem a bit less guarded.

“I’m sure you’re more adept at taking care of yourself out here than I would be, and you probably wouldn’t come with me if I asked so... I’ll come back tomorrow with more food, okay? Would you like that?”

His stare was impenetrable and unwavering but she wasn’t discouraged.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then! I must go now, though. Be safe, okay?”

She blinked, and in one second and the next the boy was gone as if he’d never been there.

With a sigh Kagome collected her now empty basket, discarded shawl, and made her way back to her new home.

Breaking back through the tree line, Kagome took a moment to survey the land Yash’s house sat in. Back in the distance was a large wooden building that she assumed to be his workshop, and there was a small but neglected garden off to one side. Some rose bushes that had been allowed to overgrow in a tangle of thorns lined the sides of the house and ivy scrawled along the stones of the outer walls. It looked beautiful in a wild sort of way, but she would need to get some control of it to keep it from overtaking everything. There was a chicken coup as well that had been maintained much better than the plants and some smaller wooden buildings, but not much else, just the grasses of the glade rolling in the breeze and bees buzzing lazily about the flowering bushes the grew from the tree line. It was beautiful, if a little lonely, and her heart squeezed a little to know Yash had been living here all on his own.

“Well, not anymore, now that I’m here.”

She crossed the little stream again and headed inside where she found the broom and dust rags and set to work righting the mess on the inside. Yash was not a dirty man by any means, but there was a layer of dust over everything that spoke to a certain neglect brought on by long hours working at his trade. Once she was done she scraped up a meager dinner with what he had on hand, and then her nerves kicked up at the idea of her husband returning soon. The sun was beginning to dip closer to the horizon and he’d no doubt be coming back to the house to eat. She had no idea what to expect from such a homecoming; not only had she never been married before, she still knew very little about the man she was now tied to forever. Her mind spiraled, plunging into dark thoughts and feelings as her dinner cooled and remained uneaten as she preferred to chew on her nails instead of her food. She startled so hard she nearly screamed when the door opened and slammed shut. Yash walked right passed her without sparing even the barest look, his dark goggles in place and the bandana and leather hat pulled down low on his head. She gaped like a fish as she watched him and then shook herself to find her voice when it was clear he wouldn’t pause his stride.

“Uh, I- I made dinner!”

“Already ate.”

“Well wait, I-“

The door to his room slammed loudly shut and the sound reverberated through the house. Kagome blinked several times and slumped in the chair, feeling very small all alone at the table. Appetite gone, she collected her plate, put away the uneaten food and retreated to her own room.

Yash stared numbly into the mirror hanging over his chest of drawers, the spare light of the moon filtering through the window making them glow eerie and inhuman. His hands twitched on the wood and the claws growing from his fingertips made shallow gouges in the surface. He brought his hands up and ripped them off one by one with his teeth, pointless as it was since they’d be back in the morning.

He sighed and unbraided his hair before massaging at his scalp and around his ears. He took a deep, cleansing breath and regretted it immediately; already the feminine scent of his new housemate clouded the atmosphere of his once isolated home, and though her scent was nice, it put him on edge. His home had always been his safe space to be free, but now housed another pair of eyes to hide from. His ears picked up the sound of her approaching footsteps and he tensed, waiting for her to try and open the door, but she paused before knocking softy.

“Hello? Yash? It’s me.”

He snorted, who else would it be?

“What do you want?”

“Um, are you planning on going into town tomorrow?”

Three completed orders ready for delivery flashed through his mind, already loaded into his cart and ready to go.

“Yes. Why ya askin?”

She hesitated for just a moment, and if he couldn’t smell her nerves he’d know in an instant she was anxious, her nervous energy nearly vibrated through his door.

“Oh I just... we could use some more food is all. You didn’t have much in the kitchen. Which is fine! I’m not complaining, I know this was all very unexpected, me coming here and all. And I certainly made do today... it’s just that if you’re going to be in town already maybe you could pick a few things up? And maybe some seeds for the garden? I could clean it up and get it growing again. And maybe some fabric? My room could use some curtains, and so could the rest of the room windows. I have some money leftover from my grandfather I could give you for-“

“Keep your money woman, I’ll get your stuff tomorrow.” He cut her off, brows raised as he fought off a grin.

‘A nervous rambler. Cute.’

He rolled his eyes when he noticed she still hovered behind his door, he was ready to let his guard down and get some sleep.

“Anything else?”

“Oh!” She said in alarm, startled by him knowing she was still there, but she cleared her throat and pushed on. “N-no that was all. Goodnight Yash.”

He heard her scurry off and she slumped in relief. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms above his head before finally undressing and getting into bed. Tomorrow was going to be another long day.

Yasha stayed true to his word and got all the things she’d asked for, providing her with something to do to pass the time during the daylight hours. If she wasn’t exploring the forest, she was sewing curtains, tending the new vegetable garden, pruning the roses or getting to know the chickens. It was enough to keep her occupied while the sun was up, but Yash still refused to even look at her when he came in for the night, he never ate with her, and he spoke as few words as possible without looking her in the eye. She’d yet to see the little fae child in the forest again no matter how many times she went back to the clearing or what kind of food she brought. She was starting to think she’d imagined the whole thing. She was coming up on a week since she’d come here, and while there was more to see than before, and none of the people in the village particularly liked her, she was getting lonely.

When she woke the Wednesday that marked a whole week of her new life, she nearly ran out of the house in her sleeping gown when she heard voices outside. She dressed in a hurry, stumbled into her shoes, and raced outside, heedless of any potential danger, just desperate to see a face.

Yash grumbled as he unloaded the cart delivering his supply of wood, listening to Miroku drone on and on about some nonsense or other, thankful that the man hadn’t asked about the disguise he was wearing today. Miroku was just about the only friend he had, the only person he didn’t have to hide from. Miroku was a well traveled man who’d seen and done his share of shady things, he knew how to keep a secret and not judge a man for the wrong reasons.

But he still got on Yash’s last nerve.

He tensed for a moment when he heard the front door open, but he ducked his head and carried on unloading.

“Oh? And who’s this?” Miroku asked with way too much interest, and Yash pointedly ignored him.

“Hi, my name is Kagome.”

Miroku slid off the seat of his cart and took Kagome’s hands in his, his voice going smooth as silk.

“What a lovely name for a lovely woman! Tell me Lady Kagome, how do you find yourself here in my surly friend’s home? He does not usually have other visitors.”

“Well, he uh... I’m... I guess I’m-“

“She’s my wife.” Yash cut in, continuing to avoid both of their gazes and focus on the supply of wood. “Watch your hands perv.”

Miroku pulled his hands back and grinned a devious, delighted grin that would have put him on edge had he been paying attention.

“Your wife?! Oh ho ho, and when did this happen? My friend, I must say I’m hurt you didn’t tell me you were wooing someone!”

Kagome giggled nervously and waved her hands in dismissal.

“Oh it’s not like that. I’m afraid I was made an orphan last week and Yash agreed to marry me so that I wouldn’t have to marry Naraku.”

“That rich prick who’s always shmoozing with the headman and the sherif? That would have been a harrowing fate indeed for one as lovely as you. I’m not surprised Yash stepped in to help, he’s got a pretty solid sense of honor.”

“Quit talking about me like I can’t hear.”

Miroku laughed at his friend’s enduring grumpiness, and then kissed Kagome’s hand in farewell before taking off on his now empty cart.

Yash started sorting through his new pile of supplies and loading up the pull cart he used to get them into his storage sheds. It was tedious work that took the better part of the rest of the morning as he separated them out by type. His workshop wasn’t big enough to store all of the raw materials and he simply hadn’t had the time or inclination to build a bigger one, so this was the system that worked, annoying as it was.

And it was apparently going to be even more tedious, as Kagome was still hovering around watching him.

“Do you need some help?”

“No.”

“Oh. Can I help anyway?”

“Suit yourself.”

She perked up and dashed over, taking a moment to observe before diving in and helping him divide the wood materials the way he always did.

When he was done and the last piece was in the last shed, he made to leave and go to his workshop, but her voice stopped him again.

“Wait please! Wait...”

He stood rooted in place with his back to her, but he didn’t move, so she took a deep breath and shored up her courage.

“Listen, I’m really lonely okay? We never talk. Ever. And I never see anyone else. Can you at least have dinner with me? I know this wasn’t a love match or anything but it would be nice to at least try and be friends. We’re kind of going to be together for... well ever.”

He stared ahead and dread curled inside his stomach. Sitting and talking so close was a risk, but she was right that it seemed crazy to never interact if they would be around each other all the time, he couldn’t avoid her forever. He also couldn’t let her languish alone.

But sitting and eating in front of her? Not possible.

“Not dinner... but we can meet at the stream after.”

“Really?!” She asked brightly, and he already regretted how much more difficult this was about to make his life.

“Yeah I guess.”

It would be dark, and they could sit a ways away from each other. He could still be safe, and she wouldn’t have to be alone.

It was the best he could do.

“Okay! Thank you!” She hurried back into the house to do whatever it was she did during the day, and he escaped to his workshop where he could remove his restricting goggles and work in peace.


	4. Islands by the Stream

They started that very night. 

Yash took a few moments to breath alone in his room without his constricting disguise while Kagome ate a quick dinner, but soon enough he was sitting stiff at the bank of the stream with Kagome bouncing happily next to him, though he’d managed to scoot a couple feet away without her being too put off.

She chattered excitedly about the work she did in the garden or something funny the chickens had done and he got away with grunting every now and again to prove he was listening. Nothing personal was said, nothing personal was asked, and she seemed content to do the talking and let him do the listening.

He did feel a marginal amount of guilt; she must have been very lonely indeed to be so happy to talk about chickens and soil, but it was a relief to not have to actually do much talking yet. 

When she was out of mundane things to fill him in on, she tried to engage him in speaking next, to offer some story or contribute to the conversation, but his ears itched and his eyes ached behind the goggles he wore and he was more tense now than he had been at the start.

“Do you need anything?”

“Pardon?” She asked, confused at the direction he was turning the conversation. She leaned over to try and see his face, but he kept it pointed to the rushing water in front of them.

“I’m going into the village tomorrow to deliver an order, do I need to get anything?”

She paused for a moment in thought, and from the corner of his eye he could see her tapping her finger on her chin. He smirked a little and turned his face further away, focusing on the night breeze and the way it rustled the trees.

“I guess I could use some fabric, my dress has a hole in it. I snagged it on a tree in the forest a couple days ago, I need to repair it.”

“Alright. It’s late, we should go to bed.”

“Oh! Um, okay. Well, until tomorrow then?”

“Yep, tomorrow.” He reached down to take her hand and help her up, but she accidentally pulled his glove off. He knew his claws had grown enough to be noticeable since he’d cut them off again in his workshop earlier, so he snatched his hand back in a panic.

“Shit.” He cradled his bare hand against his chest and turned away from her, rushing back into the house and ignoring her cries to wait. 

He didn’t breath easy again until his bedroom door was shut and bolted at his back.

* * *

With her new skirt swishing around her legs, Kagome made her way through the forest with her usual basket of food. The day after their first meeting by the stream, Inuyasha had kept his promise to get her more fabric to mend her clothes with. But instead of the scrap castoffs she usually bought to make patches out of, her bought her enough fabric to make several new articles of clothing all together.

Two days of diligent sewing later and she had a new pink dress. Pink was a color her grandfather discouraged as frivolous for a family of healers, so she’d been so pleasantly surprised when she found the pink, flowery fabric in the stack. It had been the first one she turned into clothing. 

‘I’m excited to wear it to the stream tonight,’ she thought with blush. Impressing her new husband wasn’t exactly on her agenda but it felt nice to be able to show him the things he bought her wouldn’t go to waste. 

She sighed then, thinking of how one sided their conversations had been so far. They were supposed to be getting to know each other, but so far these last few nights had consisted of her chattering on and Yash sitting there stiff and silent, as if he was petrified at the thought of talking with someone.

‘But that can’t be true. He seemed easy enough in Miroku’s presence. And Miroku made it seem like they were good friends. So it must be me.’ 

She stepped into her usual clearing and mindlessly set herself up in the center, laying back on the soft carpet of clover and staring up at the clouds.

She took a deep breath of the earthy air and held it for several seconds before releasing it in a big whoosh, relaxing her body bonelessly into the ground. Her eyes fluttered closed and her heart rate evened, and with the air hanging low and warm, full of the lazy buzz of insects, Kagome’s mind slowed and she thought it might be a nice time to take a nap. 

A crack of a stick, a rustle of leaves, a soft swish of wind made her eyes snap open before she sat abruptly and looked frantically around.

The forest seemed eerily still, no longer softly bustling with life and motion, and she could feel that, somewhere, a set of eyes watched her from the brush.

“H-hello? Is someone there?”

A cold breeze circled her, brushed against her arms and made her shiver. 

“You’re a strange human.” A disembodied voice murmured, and her eyes darted around again to find the source.

Suddenly, the air in front of her coalesced and out popped the small red headed boy she’d seen before.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to talk to Fairies?”

Her jaw dropped but then quickly a wide, delighted grin overtook her face.

“It’s you! I knew I didn’t imagine it!”

The little fairy wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, plopping down in the ground across from her.

“Most humans run screaming when they see fae folk, but you’ve come here everyday to see me again. Aren’t you scared?”

“You knew I was here everyday and never tried to say hi? And no, I’m not scared. I’m curious! I’ve never met a fairy before.”

He narrowed his eyes which glinted with suspicion, before he relaxed and smiled, reaching into her basket to help himself to some food.

“I’m Shippo! And you were right not to be scared. I’m a good fairy, I’ll protect you while you’re here in my forest.”

Kagome giggled and then snatched her basket away before he could take all of her lunch for himself.

“How magnanimous of you. And what luck to find such a kind and generous fairy on my first try! I assume I don’t have to tell you my name again?”

His little chest puffed out with pride and he smirked, and Kagome nearly squealed at how cute he was.

“Of course not! Fairies are smart, and I'm the smartest! You said your name was Kagome. Names mean a lot to fairies, since you gave me yours I’ll never forget it.”

“Well, thank you for giving me your name in return Shippo. I’m so glad to finally meet you.”

He blushed a little and then shoved a hunk of food in his mouth. “Do you live out here all alone? Do your parents know you’ve made friends with a human? I wouldn’t want to anger them.”

“Nah, I don’t have parents anymore. But it’s fine, I’m big enough to take care of myself!”

Kagome’s heart twisted for him. She doubted he’d come up to her knee on his tip toes, and while fairy children were no doubt very different from human children in their capabilities, he didn’t look big enough to be on his own. 

“Well, you’re very brave to be taking care of yourself already. If I come back tomorrow, will you come talk to me again?”

He eyed her for a moment and made a show of tapping his chin in thought as he considered her.

“Yeah I’ll come. But only if you bring me more food. Fairies like gifts of food.”

“What else do fairies like gifts of?” She asked with genuine interest, noticing the way his green eyes brightened with childlike enthusiasm.

“Sweets! Lots of sweets. Fairies love sweet things.”

“I see. I’ll be sure to remember that.”

The false bravado he’d been wearing melted away as he showed her a few bits of magic he knew, little sparkly illusions made of rich blue flames that he made dance and twirl around her without igniting the ground. His face was the picture of childish innocence and delight shaded with just a touch of mischief as she clapped in delight at his magic tricks. And then in a swirl of flickering azure fire he disappeared. Kagome gasped as his disembodied voice filled the clearing from all directions.

“I have to go now. But come back tomorrow like you promised, and bring sweets!”

The air went still again for several long moments before the birdsong and insect buzzing exploded back to life. Kagome rubbed the goose flesh off her arms and collected her things, starkly reminded that Shippo was, indeed, not a regular child and suddenly very aware that he might not be the only fairy in the forest. She didn’t care to find out how benevolent the others may be.

* * *

The scent of flaky crust and warm berries clouded the air of her cottage home while she made some last minute stitches to the bandannas she was making. Kagome smiled to herself at how domestic it felt, how normal it felt. 

She’d never been normal; or at least, she’d never been perceived as normal. It had been isolating despite how much closer she’d lived to the actual village.

Now that she regularly spoke to both Yash and the little fairy child Shippo, things were far less lonely in her new life, especially with so many new things to do and take care of. The chickens still needed feeding, some weeds had grown up in the vegetable garden, the bread for dinner needed to be kneaded and left to rise, and she wanted to take a closer look at the over grown rose bushes. She had a feeling they’d once been beautiful, and she intended to restore them to their former glory.

‘But first I need to finish these bandanas.’ 

She stitched and stitched until her fingers were sore with needle pricks, and then she drifted through the rest of her chores, humming to herself and fining contentment in being busy, having things to do and things to look forward to. She missed her grandfather and their old life in their little cottage on the outskirts of town, but there was a certain fit in her new life that she’d never had before. There was no one whispering about her as she went about her day, no eyes at her back as she entered the library or walked through the square, and no ill mannered suitors pressing themselves on her despite her refusals. 

She missed her books, she missed her grandfather, but she missed nothing else.

She sat back from the scraggly rosebush in front of her and wiped her brow. With her kitchen shears she had managed to cut away a good portion of the over grown vines that grew off the side of the house, as well as some of the dryer, deader thorn branches that choked the life out of the parts of the bush still trying to live. A large pile of pruned plant matter sat nearby, but there was still so much to do. She looked up into the sky to note the position of the sun. She’d managed to work diligently through the rest of the day, and now it was time to wash up for dinner. 

* * *

She chattered nervously while her husband simply sat quietly, listening to her rambling while he watched the water race through the stream, catching flickers of moonlight. He always watched the stream flow, he never looked at her, even the few words he contributed here and there were directed toward the water’s surface instead of her face. It made her even more nervous, and the more nervous she got, the more she rambled.

“And then I got to work on the rose bushes because I can tell they used to be very lovely but they haven’t been tended in such a long time. I hope I can get them back to a healthy state so they can flower again soon. The chickens are well, they had more eggs today than yesterday, and the garden is doing nice. OH! I met a little fairy boy in the forest today! He was so-“

“Wait... you talked to a fairy today?” Yash interrupted, staring out deep into the forest with an edge in his voice that startled her. 

“Um, just a very young one.”

“You shouldn’t be messing with fairies. They’re dangerous.”

“He’s just a child, and I think he’s all alone. I think he needs a fr-“

“Fairies are not friends, Kagome. They’re dangerous.”

She bristled and tears pricked the back of her eyes. 

“Well who else is going to be my friend all the way out here? Besides, he’s just a lonely child. I don’t even go that far into the forest, he’s not leading me deeper in until I get lost!”

Yash sat straight and continued to stare into the black between the trees. With the large, dark goggles and the hat pulled low over his face, she couldn’t make out his expression, and she wondered not for the first time why he always insisted on wearing them.

“If you're gonna keep on going out there and talking to magical creatures you need a weapon. If something happens to you out here when I’m supposed to be taking care of you, your grandfather is going to haunt my ass until I die.”

Kagome bit her lip to keep from laughing, it was probably true after all, but she perked up a little to know he wasn’t going to try and stop her exploration and growing friendship with Shippo.

“My father began teaching me to use a bow before he died, I know the basics of that. If you can make me one I’ll practice every day! I promise!”

He sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck, relaxing the tension in his posture before standing up and offering her a gloved hand to help her up.

“I don’t gotta make you one, come with me.”

She followed him inside, curiosity and excitement biting at her heels, making her skip after him like a child, but she couldn’t quash it down.

He led her to one of the doors that had so far remained shut, the inside a secret to her as she hadn’t felt brave enough yet to peek inside without being invited. 

He opened the door and she followed him in, looking around in awe at all the old treasures inside. Trinkets and old pieces of furniture, folded linens and lacquered jewelry boxes, a trunk that probably stored clothing, she was surprised at the size of the room and wanted to pick and look through everything, but Yash had pulled something from one of the chests and presented it to her.

“Here, you should be able to use this one. I’ll have to make you some more arrows but there’s enough in here to practice with and use in an emergency.”

She looked over the bow and quiver, and though it was simple, it was beautiful. She beamed at him as she carefully took it, and when he bent to retrieve some of the scattered arrows she caught a glimpse of the shelves behind him.

“Books! You have books!” She gently set the bow and quiver on the top of a nearby table and hurried over, staring in awe at the three tall shelves full of dusty books. The library in town certainly had more books than this, but she’d never seen a private library with half so many, and it was more than she’d ever had available for her own personal use. She slid one carefully from the shelf and opened it, running her fingers and eyes over the yellowed page. Yash stepped up beside her and pulled a book off as well, looked it over, wiped away the dust, and then sighed a slow, nostalgic sort of sigh. 

“These were my mother’s books.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I had no idea.” Kagome replied, fitting the book back into the slot she’d taken it from.

“No it's... it’s alright. You can have them if you want them.”

“What?” She breathed in awe, searching what slivers of his face she could see in the poor candle light and under his face and headwear. 

He once again refused to look at her, facing the shelf and looking over the books with an unreadable expression.

“Well I ain’t usin’ em. Seems a shame to let ‘em keep rotting in here if someone wants to read ‘em.”

He turned away completely then to finish gathering the arrows, and when he turned to hand them to her, she threw herself into his arms, squeezing his neck and ignoring the way he stiffened with shock.

“Oh thank you, thank you so much. No one has ever given me a gift like this!”

She pulled away and pressed a small, soft kiss to his cheek. He stiffened even further, but she smiled sweetly up at him and took the arrows from him. Yash cleared his throat and turned all the way around to hide his burning face from her. He wasn’t sure how visible his face even was in such a poorly lit room at night, but he wasn’t chancing it.

“Just.... just make sure to practice okay? Every day. I mean it. I’ll get a target set up first thing tomorrow.”

“I will. I promise I will. Trust me. Goodnight Yash.”

He strode from the room, desperate for the escape his shut and locked bedroom door provided, his cheek burning the rest of the night. 


	5. Little Secrets, Little Lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got questions? Want answers? Or maybe just previews of chapters before they drop? Come follow me on tumblr! My username is mrfeenysmustache and you can ask me things, see my fandom nonsense, and get chapter previews in between updates!

Her hands were sore from getting reacquainted with her bow, as well as a menagerie of pokes and pricks from needles and thorns; her eyes were dry and tender from staying up too late reading books by candle light, and her body protested doing anything but catching up on sleep.

But still Kagome pushed it onward to the clearing, a fat slice of pie wrapped neatly in her basket for a certain little fae child who had requested sweets the next time she came. She hoped he liked it.

It had been several days since her last trip. Yash had been insistent the next morning before he left for his workshop that she get a handle on the basics of her bow before she traipsed back into the forest. It hadn’t been a bad idea, especially as lining up her first shot had been clumsy and awkward. She’d been glad no one had been around to see.

But with a much surer stance and calloused fingers that could finally shoot straight enough, she plopped down in the little clearing and looked around through the trees.

“Shippo? You there? Sorry I didn’t come sooner, some stuff came up at home.”

Soft birdsong continued beyond the line of the trees, harmonizing with the gentle rustle of the breeze in the branches. The air felt charged with life, warmth, all things that grew, but not magic.

“I brought you sweets, just like you asked!”

No change in the music of the forest, no shift in the atmosphere, if it weren’t for all the evidence of life buzzing around her, she would feel alone.

‘ _But fairies are tricky... maybe he IS here_.’

“Alright well, if you’re sure you don’t want it, I’ll just eat and be on my way...”

She smirked as all sound and motion around her died, and a cold wind blew around the perimeter of the clearing before stopping in front of her. It crackled into a blue flame that flitted around angrily before the small form of her little fairy friend popped out with a deep frown.

“Hey! You can’t eat that, it’s mine!” he cried, snatching away the pie while Kagome laughed merrily at his dark little scowl. He took a bite, and though his angry pout softened at the sweet flavor of the pie, he looked askance at the bow at her side.

“Why’d you bring a weapon? You’ve never brought one of those before. Are you trying to hunt me?” He asked, green eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“Oh no, of course not!” She answered, pushing the bow further away from them. “It’s just for safety while I walk here and back. My husband insisted on it when he found out I was coming out here.”

Shippo hopped over to it and sniffed at it gingerly, poking it with one, careful finger.

“You have a husband?”

“Technically yes.”

“Technically?” He asked, his large green eyes blinking up at her with luminous curiosity.

“It’s a marriage of convenience. But he’s very nice, when I see him anyway.”

“Who is he?” Shippo hopped up onto her knee and she resisted the urge to pat him on the head.

‘ _He may have paws and a tail, but he’s not a pet.’_

“He’s a carpenter who lives in a cottage nearby.”

“Oh that guy? He’s weird. I see him in here sometimes when he’s hunting, but I’ve never talked to him.”

“Well that’s not very nice. He’s not weird, he’s...”

Shippo cocked a brow as he watched her search for a word, any word, quietly munching on his pie. Finally she sighed and poked his little nose in defeat.

“He’s _interesting_. Mysterious. A closed book. But not exactly weird.”

“Whatever you say, Kagome. What else did you bring me?!”

She giggled, fairy or not, he acted like a typical child a lot of the time. She unpacked the rest of the contents of her basket, and they sat together and had a happy, peaceful lunch.

* * *

In his usual place near enough to her that his wife wouldn’t notice how hard he was trying to stay away, Yash listened to her voice as she prattled on about her day. He would admit, if only to himself, that he liked her voice. It was sweet, and certainly a nice change from only hearing his own voice, or occasionally Miroku’s.

He didn’t know how he felt about her traipsing through the woods looking for Fairies, but so far she’d only found the one, and it was practically a baby.

The chickens were well. The garden was sprouting. The pruning of the rose bushes was slow going, but getting done. She’d sewn a new dress- which he noticed, though he didn’t say anything. Can she ask him a personal question?

“Wait, what?” He asked as his heart sped up and his ears itched under his coverings. Sweat trickled down his face, and though he didn’t know how impeded normal human vision was at night, he was thankful there wasn't more light for her to see his nervousness by.

“I said, ‘can I ask you a personal question?’ Our conversations so far have been pretty shallow and one sided. There’s just something a little more personal I want to know. Only one question tonight! I promise! And you can ask me one in return!”

He stared hard at the tree line beyond the bank of the stream, listening to his heart hammer in his ears, trying to keep his breathing steady and calm. He’d give her credit for taking this long to push the current boundaries of their arrangement, and they were supposed to be getting to know one another. They couldn’t talk about chickens forever.

“Uh... S-sure. One personal question each.”

“Okay!” She said brightly, hands clapped together under her chin. And then she took a few moments to decide on the perfect thing to ask.

“So, why do wear those goggles all the time? Isn’t it hard to see out of them, especially at night?”

Yash gulped and tilted his head down toward the grass under him. Despite the darkness of the night without a full moon, it _wasn't_ hard for him to see. He could count each individual blade of grass, the bugs crawling between them; if he stared hard enough he could probably see them growing.

He could not tell her that, not yet, not under such new and tenuous circumstances, when he’d been entrusted with her safety and safety meant keeping her near him. But lying to her felt wrong, too.

“My eyes are... sensitive.”

“They are?” She asked, shocked and bewildered, “even in such little light?”

“Yeah. All the time.”

“Oh. That sounds annoying. I’m sorry about that.”

At her easy acceptance he relaxed, through a small thread of guilt twined around his heart to mislead her. She was nice and trusting, and he hated to take advantage of that.

“Alright my turn.” He said, turning to look at her for just a moment. She smiled easily at him, sitting casually at his side, blue eyes open and warm. His cheeks heated and he quickly looked away, concentrating on his feet in his boots, and opening his mouth no further than it needed to go to speak understandably.

“Why don’t the villagers like you? I know why they don’t like _me_ , but you seem like a normal, pretty girl to me.”

When his mouth was closed again, he glanced back over. Her eyes were wide with awe, and her cheeks blazed red. But then something in her scent that had once been warm and inviting cooled, and he realized he must have struck a still tender nerve.

“Well, it goes back pretty far. My grandfather wasn’t the only healer in our house. My mother and grandmother were also proficient in healing. My father always said they had a special touch, my grandfather said they had the healing magic, but never where anyone else could hear. I always thought he was just being his old crazy self, but I think the villagers were suspicious. Years ago, a fever swept through the village that turned deadly, and they worked tirelessly to heal as many as they could. For a very long time they avoided falling ill, and then some of the very people they healed accused them of being witches and using magic to keep themselves safe. They pushed on with their work, treating who they could and ignoring the harassment, until they, too, finally caught the fever. They gave it to my father and baby brother, and in the next few weeks they all died. The villagers stopped outright harassing my family, decided my grandfather must have been under a spell. Losing his son, wife and grandson was his punishment for cavorting with witches who dabbled with fairy magic, or something like that. They’ve looked at me suspiciously ever since.”

Yash rolled his, irritated with how superstitious common village folk could be, how isolating it was at the end of their sidelong glances and the distance they kept from things or people they didn’t want to understand.

“Sins of the parents. I know all about that bullshit. Sorry Kagome.”

He peeked over at her and founding her smiling softly, unshed tears glimmering in her eyes.

“Thank you Yash. That means a lot.”

He cleared his throat and stood, holding out a hand to help her up.

“We should go inside now, it’s getting late.”

She followed him into the house, but when he turned to bid her goodnight, she grabbed his sleeve and held him fast.

“Wait, I have something for you! It’ll just take a moment, wait right here!”

She dashed off into her room, and even crushed under his hat his ears he could hear her shuffling around looking for something. She tripped and cursed under her breath, and he grinned a little to hear her use such colorful language. Seconds later she rushed back out and held out a small stack of colorful, folded squares, and he took them, mystified.

“It’s not much I know, but I noticed that the bandana you wear everyday is getting really frayed around the edges, so I made you some new ones. I hope you like them, but it’s okay if you hate them! Just uh... don’t tell me you hate them because I’ll probably cry, heh...”

As she rambled on in her nervousness, he softly ran his gloved fingers over the topmost bandana and the small, artful stitches she’d used to embroider a simple ‘Y’ into the fabric. She’d used some of the new fabric he’d bought her to make herself new clothes, leaving out the pink floral fabric, though one was made of the yellow floral. He smiled at that, more touched than he could say. He’d never been good with words.

“Thank you Kagome.” He finally whispered, keeping his head down, not looking her in the eye, as much to hide his fangs as to hide his embarrassment. “No one’s ever made me anything before, not like this.”

He startled when she softly touched his cheek, first with her hand and then with her lips, another soft kiss goodnight that wiped his mind of every thought.

“Goodnight Yash. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

When her door shut, he snapped out of his daze and stomped to his own room, thoroughly disgusted with himself and the simple things he let get to him.

‘ _Damn wench probably IS a witch_.’ But the spell she cast in his heart thundered on and followed him into his dreams.

* * *

The next morning, Miroku’s smile shined as bright as the sun. He’d arrived right on time for his usual Wednesday morning delivery of lumber and nails, and while Yash got to work unloading, Kagome stopped to chat, happy for a change of pace.

“Kagome! Aren’t you a refreshing sight. How has my cantankerous companion been treating you? Well I hope.”

“Oh yes, I’m very happy here. Yash has been so kind.”

“Kind, huh?” Miroku asked, cutting a look over to his friend and rubbing his chin in thought. “Have you not managed to get him out of his constricting costume and into something more... _comfortable_?”

He chuckled as her face bloomed a bright red, spluttering at his suggestive tone and waggling eyebrows.

“Oi! Cut that shit out, Miroku!” Yasha shouted from the back of the wagon, and though his hands were full of lumber, Miroku knew he’d drop it and clobber him over the head in a moments notice. He smirked and held his hands up in mock surrender.

“Alright alright. Only teasing.” He smirked again when Yash turned his back to drop off another load of lumber and he caught sight of the new bandana peaking out from under his hat.

“Ah, a new bandana, I wonder were that came from.” He looked back down at Kagome, who smiled sweetly after seeing for herself that one of the new gifts she’d made him was indeed on his head today.

“I made that for him. I can’t believe he’s wearing it already.”

“Yellow flowers huh? An unusual choice for Yash, but not unfitting. It matches his eyes, wouldn’t you say?”

Her head tilted in confusion, and she looked back over toward her husband who was now marching intently in their direction. His dark goggles were firmly in place, as they always were, she’d never seen him without them.

“I’m afraid I can’t say, Miroku. I’ve never seen his eyes.”

“That’s unfortunate my Lady, I pray that changes for you soon.”

“Miroku, I thought I told you to knock it off.” Yash ground out, yanking Miroku off the driver’s seat on his cart and dragging him to the back. “Enough chit-chat, help me unload!”

The two men bickered back and forth as Yash put Miroku to work, but Kagome watched silently, staring at the yellow, flower printed corner of the bandana poking out of the back of his leather cap. She studied it and considered Miroku’s words before drifting quietly back into the house to start on some chores.

‘ _His eyes... are yellow_?’


	6. When the Shadow Rolls Back...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wolves are not bad guys despite how they're often portrayed in fairytales.That said, a wolf will play a minor role in this chapter, much like the rolethey played in the very classic animated Beauty and the Beast by Disney. I don't condone hatred toward wolves or any other wild animal just doing their best.

The nights counted on, one by one, and with each one Kagome wrangled another personal question out of him.

“ _What’s your favorite color?”_

_“What’s your favorite food?”_

_“Do you like your job?”_

_“Am I your first wife?”_

_“If you could live anywhere else in the world._ _Where would you live?”_

_“How many fairies have you seen out here?”_

_“Why do you buy wood from Miroku when you live in a forest surrounded by it?”_

_“Is Miroku your only friend?”_

Aside from the first one, which seemed frivolous to him, the answers to her “personal” questions were much easier to give than the one about his eyes.

_“Meat; it’s fine; of course, stupid, who else would marry me?; further into the woods, away from everyone; no fairies, they know better than to mess with me; I like living in the trees, if I used them to make things, there would be no more trees; yes, he’s my only friend... besides you.”_

The last one had sent her heart into a flutter that he’d heard loud and clear even over the bubbling of the stream they spoke at. She laughed easily when he said something she thought was supposed to be a joke, and would often touch his hand or shoulder in a casual, comfortable way that still left him startled and jittery.

And the nightly goodnight kisses she brushed against his cheek were starting to unravel his very sanity.

She was sweet and gentle and kind, though she’d more than once bossed him around when he tracked mud in or forgotten the lunch she’d made for him to take to his workshop. He was too used to hunting something on his own, and her kindness was foreign in his previous life of loneliness.

It was impossible to be lonely anymore with her around. She suffused everything in his home and on his property. Her scent laced through the air, permeating every room, books she’d been reading littered through the house, pages open and abandoned, her voice carried around her as she sang to herself through her daily tasks. He usually only heard it in the mornings she got up before he left, but it followed him and haunted him as he worked. The rose bushes that his mother had loved so much, the ones he hadn’t been able to even look at after her death were cleaned of overgrown thorns and trimmed down neatly, ready to support new growth. Instead of an empty, dusty patch of land that he merely slept in when he wasn’t working, Kagome had shaped it into a home.

Warm, welcoming, beckoning him to come back and relax.

But he couldn’t.

He swung his hammer down with too much force, cracking the pieces he’d been putting together. He growled in frustration and tossed them aside, the mounting frustration thrumming through him making him careless.

As nice as her presence had been, he was going crazy having to stay so bound up in his own home. Where before his caps, bandanas, gloves and goggles had been reserved for delivery trips into town, now he was wearing them anytime he wasn’t in his workshop or locked in his room. His ears and eyes ached, and he was getting increasingly anxious about being discovered by her in his work shop. She’d never come out that far before, but still he hesitated removing his disguise every day just in case she decided to. As sensitive as his ears were, sometimes he couldn’t make out the sound of footprints over his saws and hammers.

He bit the claws growing back out of his fingertips down so they wouldn’t get in the way of his work, picked up his saw, and got to work making a new piece to replace the one he’d just broken. He pushed his thoughts of her away, he had too much to get done to he so distracted.

* * *

Yash watched Kagome and Miroku laugh and talk easily as he slipped the binding ties from his newest load of lumber. Her smile was so bright, and her eyes glowed with happiness, and for a moment he wondered if he’d done the right thing bringing her here. She obviously longed for human connection, and he just couldn’t give it to her the way others could. Realistically he knew Naraku was no sort of option for a girl like Kagome, he would have stifled the life out of her with his cruelty. But he was beginning to wonder if she would suffer the same fate with him, just slower.

With a sigh of disgust at the direction of his thoughts, he looked away and finished untying the binds on the lumber. There was a time he’d thought he’d be alone forever, had accepted it, it was way too out of the ordinary to be actually worrying about a _wife._

“You can come out now. She’s gone.” Miroku said unexpectedly from right next to him, snatching the leather cap from his head. Yash gasped and glanced around frantically, not seeing Kagome anywhere.

“Miroku, you ass, don’t do that!”

“She’s _gone_. She’s deep into the woods at this point. Now it’s just me. It _can't_ be comfortable under all that.”

With another sigh he took off his gloves, pulled his goggles off and ripped the bandana from his head, groaning in relief as his ears sprang free and he rubbed the tender skin around his eyes.

“Ah, there you are Inuyasha. Long time no see.”

“My ears ache, my eyes burn, I don’t know how much longer I can go on wearing this shit all the time. It was bad enough when it was just for village deliveries but now it’s any time I’m not in my shop. I’m going to have to streamline my disguise or something. I just don’t know how.”

“Or,” Miroku interjected, handing his cap back and leaning against the back of his cart, arms crossed casually. “you could just... you know, tell her. Then you won’t have to wear it at home anymore.”

Inuyasha scoffed, tossing aside the various bits of his disguising and pulling a load of lumber off.

“That’s the _least_ helpful idea I think you’ve ever had.”

“I’m serious. I really don’t think she’d mind. She seems nice.”

“She is nice. _Really_ fucking nice. And kind. And she smells really fucking good and she’s just everywhere all the time. I’m so uncomfortable here with all that bullshit on all the time, but I’m not _lonely_ anymore. I’m just... I’m not ready to risk that, alright?”

Miroku hummed in consideration as he shouldered his own stack of boards, taking stock of all the cosmetic changes he could see on the outside of his friend’s home. His little wife had obviously been busy since she’d arrived, and whether he realized it or not, Inuyasha himself seemed different, too.

“She’s come to mean a lot to you, hasn’t she? Do you spend any time with her?”

“We talk. Every night we talk by the stream. At first it was just to keep her from being lonely all the time, but, I like hearing her voice when she rambles about her day.” Inuyasha replied, looking away to hide the blush he could feel glowing on his cheeks. “I mean I don’t talk much. It’s hard to hide my fangs when I talk more than absolutely necessary, but I say a little when I can.”

“Listen Inuyasha,” Miroku implored him, resting his hand on his friend’s shoulder after they’d laid their burdens down on the ground and staring him in the eyes. “I really do think you should just tell her and get it over with. These things, they never go over as well when they come out as a surprise. If you’re honest it’s sure to go a lot further with her. And I mean it when I say I don’t think she’ll mind. There’s something about her, Inu, something special. You should have seen how sweet and flustered she got when I pointed out that her dress matched your bandana today. Listen to me: She. Will. Not. Mind.”

Inuyasha stared back into Miroku’s eyes silently for a moment, before his shoulders drooped and he shook his head in defeat.

“Isn’t that just what every girl dreams of, an eternally cursed husband who she ‘ _doesn’t mind.’_ I hear what you’re saying Miroku. I’ll think about it, but no promises.”

“Yash that’s not... that’s not what I meant at all.”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter, I’ve got work to do anyway.”

He pulled away from Miroku’s grasp and went back to silently unloading the cart.

* * *

“Yash, did you ever think about what kind of wife you’d end up with?” Kagome asked, arms wrapped around her knees and bare toes wiggling in the cool grass. Yash snorted and clenched his jaw, his earlier conversation with Miroku still circling his mind and souring his mood.

“No. I never planned on marrying anyone.”

“Oh... uh...” she stammered, and her scent cooled into a frazzle of things that were so far from the warm, sugary way she usually smelled.

“Just never saw the point before.”

“Well, I hope I haven’t... been a disappointment then...”

“You’ve been fine.” He ground out, digging his nails into the ground, still harder and sharper than regular human nails despite how short he’d bit them off just a short while ago so he could go without his gloves at least. He could smell her tears and he felt like such a bastard, but his head throbbed because of the tight straps of his goggles and the way his ears had been laid flat for too many hours. He breathed in deep, ragged breaths around the knot of agitation tightening itself in his chest.

“Yash... are you okay?” Her voice was as gentle as the hand she laid lightly on his arm, but it was too much, it was all too much. He shook her off and stood abruptly, turning his back on her.

“Look I’m fine, alright? I’m tired, and I’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow. I’m going to bed.”

He strode quickly and purposefully across the lawn and into the house, trying and failing not to slam the door too hard behind him. The minute he was in his room he ripped his disguise off as well as the shirt that now smelled like her where she’d touched him. He tossed them all into a crumpled heap and then leaned against his dresser, staring into the mirror leaned against the wall, watching his eyes glow inhumanly in the moonlight washing through his window. He ground his teeth back and forth and breathed hard through his nose, trying desperately to calm his racing thoughts and racing heart, but he only succeeded in slicing his tongue on one of his fangs.

“Shit. _Fuck_.” He cursed, wiping the blood from his mouth and throwing himself across his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. The front door opened and closed quietly, and he could smell Kagome’s tears even through his shut and locked door.

‘ _Please don’t come to the door, please don’t, please don’t._ ’ He prayed silently, counting her steps, focusing on how they grew more distant. Her door shut and he exhaled, feeling a crushing mix of relief and disappointment that his prayer had been answered.

He threw his arm over his eyes and willed himself to sleep.

* * *

With the sun shining on her so warmly, her belly full of cake, and the tiny weight of little Shippo sleeping snuggled into her side, Kagome could almost pretend like nothing in the world was wrong. Her afternoon had been much more pleasant that she thought it would be after how awful the last days had been. Yash stopped meeting her by the stream, refusing to even look at her all, merely grunting in reply if she spoke to him. Her only solace was coming to the woods, where Shippo kept her thoroughly entertained and distracted with little games and illusions. She’d laugh and chase and tell him stories, and Yash and his bizarre behavior would be the farthest thing from her mind.

But now, when things had slowed down and Shippo had tuckered out into a deep snooze she had nothing else to do but think of her husband and how hard he had been to reach since that day they’d been thrown together by a cruel twist of fate. She’d worked so hard to get as close to him as she had been, and hearing that she might be a burden or a nuisance or an interloper to his preferred solitude had hurt more than she expected it should.

She _liked_ her husband.

 _‘I thought... I thought he liked me, too._ ’ Tears burned her eyes, acid made from the ugly feelings stomping around inside her, and with no one around to see, she let them fall and slip into the dirt below her.

She didn’t realize she’d even fallen asleep when she woke to find the sun falling below the horizon. Shippo was still slumbering next to her, too, but the low light of twilight gave the forest an ominous cast she didn’t want to linger in, so she shook him awake.

“Shippo, wake up. The sun is going down. We have to go.”

“Huh? K’gome? What’d you say?”

Kagome laughed at his squinty, sleepy eyes and scooped him up.

“The sun is going down. It’s not safe to sleep out in the open anymore. I’ve got to go home.”

“Oh,” Shippo yawned and stretched in her arms before hopping up onto her shoulder. “I’ll help you get home Kagome, don’t worry! I’ll use my magic to light the way!”

His little hand lit with blue flames and then he tossed them to the ground where they skipped and hopping ahead in the direction she always walked from home, providing extra light against the lengthening shadows brought by the falling sun.

“They’ll stay with you the whole way!”

“Well that’s handy. Will you be safe getting home? Do you need to come with me?”

“Feh! I’m a big tough fairy Kagome! Don’t worry about me! Just get home safe so you can bring me more sweets tomorrow.”

She giggled and squeezed him in a tight hug, and then he disappeared in another swirl of flames that never failed to impress her.

She gathered her basket up and followed the flames that hopped just at the edge of the clearing as if waiting for her. They expertly predicted her steps, but she walked slowly anyway to ensure they wouldn’t fizzle out if she went too fast as they were her only light source, and the forest around her was growing rapidly darker, the shadows between the trees seemed to thicken and come to life before her eyes.

“I could really use a lantern. Or a torch. Or even a candle. Should it be this dark before the sun is done going down? It feels colder than it should... I wonder if Yash has come in from his shop yet.” She was rambling, she knew it, she always did when she was nervous, but the hair on her arms stood on end and if felt like a dozen eyes had opened to watch her back as she left the confines of the woods.

She breathed in deeply and released it in a slow, steady exhale, trying to calm her racing heart and the trembling wracking her form.

“It’s alright, it’s alright, there’s no need to be so afraid Kagome. Just calm down.”

The sound of a stick breaking, leaves rustling, and a low, menacing growl had Kagome whipping around with a strangled gasp. With wide eyes she stared into an especially inky patch of trees, heart thundering wildly in her ears, and with shaky hands she attempted to set an arrow to her bow.

She gulped, sweat beading and streaking down her skin, and dropped the arrow. She quickly scrambled to grab another, lifting her bow up and pointing it toward a place where it looked like the very darkness was moving.

She struggled to breath fully, short, gasping breaths egging on her panic and leaving fuzz in her head she couldn’t think around.

From the shadows stepped a wolf, skinny and bedraggled, with a feral, hungry light in his eyes as he stalked towards her.

He was half starved, but still much too big to fight off alone, and his claws and teeth were sharp and bared.

His growl reverberated through the air, up her spine, freezing her solid. The point of her arrow shook in her grasp, but she couldn’t release her hold on the bowstring.

With his lips peeled back in an angry snarl, the wolf hunkered down, dug his claws in the dirt, and lept.

* * *

Inuyasha stepped out of his workshop, hat, bandana and goggles clutched in his fist as he took a cleansing breath of air not tainted with sawdust. The sun was still hanging just at the edge of the horizon, plenty of time for his nightly hunt before forcing himself home. The house always smelled so good when he’d get home, the dinners his wife would cook for herself were probably delicious, but it was hard to hide his fangs when eating in front of someone, so rabbits and squirrels from the woods and cooked in his shop stove were getting him by, as they always had before. His heart twisted to think of her, how alone he'd left her since his outburst the last time they spoke. Keeping his distance from her now was more painful than he thought it should be, but she'd integrated herself so firmly into his life it felt like he was trying to remove a limb.

He groaned in disgust and dropped the various bits of his disguise to the ground in front of his shop door and stepped toward the woods, stretching the kinks out of shoulders from his hours hunched and hammering over a shop bench.

Loose and ready to run, Inuyasha took his customary running stance and made one more step towards the tree line when a scream rent the air and chilled his blood.

His ears swiveled toward the source and he knew immediately it came from the direction of his house.

His brows raised in alarm, another scream, and before its echos had died away, he was taking off in another direction.

“Shit. Kagome! I’m coming!”

The things he used to cover his shame gathered dust on the ground.


	7. ...The Light Comes Through

With his lips peeled back in an angry snarl, the wolf hunkered down, dug his claws in the dirt, and lept.

Kagome screamed, clutching her bow, spinning on her heel, and racing away deeper into the darkness of the forest. The little flame Shippo had left her sped in circles around her feet, providing a little light to see by, but she was running mostly blind, thin branches whipping across her face and arms. She could hear the sound of the wolf’s great paws beating down in the dirt as he gave chase, and then he snarled and lunged for her heel. She stumbled, but pushed herself onward, holding back a sob that would release the tears burning her eyes. Her vision was compromised enough by the dying daylight.

Her lungs ached and a stitch in her side that stabbed through her ribs like a serrated knife made her trip up again, and this time it was enough for the hungry, bedraggled wolf to catch up to her. He butted into her back and knocked her over, and in a last moment of clarity before fear over took her, she spun around and brought her bow up to catch his lunging teeth.

She screamed again, loud and shrill, as his paws scrabbled at the ground on either side of her and his jaws snapped around her bow. In short order it broke in two useless pieces, and she rolled onto her side, curling into herself and shielding her head with her arms, silently crying and praying that her death would come as quick and painless and possible.

The wolf spit the remnants of the bow to the side, and then his hot breath near her ear sent a chill down her spine. His growl was low and menacing, and she could feel the slobber of his open jaws dripping down her arms.

She curled up tighter, smaller, squeezed her eyes shut, ready for the end, but then the weight of the wolf was suddenly gone from her, and she he heard a different snarl followed by a strangled yelp.

The sounds of scuffling and growling quickly filled the space behind her, and she took several deep, slow breaths to calm her racing heart so she could get up and investigate.

Uncurling from the little ball she’d been in, she glanced cautiously over to the side, where the wolf was locked claw to claw with what looked like a man with long, white hair.

She stared, mouth agape, as ears atop his head perked up when she stood, and the man looked over his shoulder at her, golden eyes flashing in the darkness as they reflected the Fox fire light that still clung to her ankles.

“Kagome... Run... now.”

She hesitated, unsure if leaving was the right thing to do. This man had saved her, surely she should help him somehow.

He tossed the wolf to the side. He yelped again as he hit the ground, rolling across and kicking up a cloud of dust.

The wild looking man turned to her again, eyes frantic and fangs bared.

“I said go! Go home!”

And then he lept back on top of the wolf, who had regained his footing and crouched to spring forward onto his new target.

Kagome felt something inside her snap, and then she was racing back through the woods towards her house.

The clearing she always shared with Shippo was not a far hike as it was, and the path she’d taken while chased by the wolf ran perfectly parallel to the tree line. In short order, she emerged into the sprawling property that held her house, though a little further upstream than she usually entered or exited the woods.

Without bothering with removing her shoes, she splashed through the stream and ran to her house, throwing open the door, shaking the windows when it slammed into the wall.

“Yash?! Yash, are you home?” She called out, running through the sitting room and into the kitchen, finding no signs of his return like his boots by the door or a trail of dirt on the floor.

“Yash!!!” She ran back outside and quickly circled the house. With the sun barely peeking over the horizon, he should have been home from his workshop already. This was normally the time she would be eating her dinner while he cleaned up in his room before they met by the stream, but he was nowhere to be found. Trekking back into the house, Kagome stopped in front of his bedroom door and knocked firmly, waiting for him to answer.

“Yash? Are you in there? Something happened in the woods... I don’t really want to be alone.”

The air in her home remained still and empty, and no sounds stirred on the other side of the door.

“Yash?” She knocked again, and then tried the handle. She’d never been invited into his room before, and he’d never been in hers. It was the one place they hadn’t crossed yet, as intertwined as the rest of their lives had become. As wrong as it felt to intrude on this part of his private domain, she was starting to worry.

Thankfully the door was unlocked, and with a thundering heart she stepped slowly inside.

“Yash... are you here?”

His bed was unmade, and a few articles of clothing were strewn across the floor. She bent down and picked up a bandana, one of the ones she’d made him. She ran her hand over it, eyes roving across the white and yellow buds growing across the pale cream fabric, the one she was certain he’d hate, but had been the first one he’d worn. She smiled a little, remembering how flattered she’d been to see him in it, something she’d made him with her own hands, and then her brow furrowed as something else came back to her.

“Yellow flowers huh? An unusual choice for Yash, but not unfitting. It matches his eyes, wouldn’t you say?”

It was an odd comment at the time; no one had yellow eyes, but she recalled the flashing gold glare of the strange man who’d saved her from that wolf attack, and the bandana fluttered to the floor as she gasped in realization.

“Oh my god, that was Yash!”

Hurrying outside, Kagome stood in the doorway, pacing back and forth and chewing her nails to stubs, hoping and praying and waiting for for him to step out of the tree line in one, healthy piece.

Over and over she stopped herself from running headlong back into the woods, but Yash’s eyes had burned with such intensity when he’d told her to leave, and with her bow snapped in two, she wasn’t even sure what she’d be able to do to help him. If she got in his way, he would almost certainly get hurt if he wasn’t already.

Her nails were bit down to sore nubs when a head of white hair finally glowed against the shadows of the tree line, and she watched dumbfounded for a moment as Yash limped across the grass, one hand pressed into his ribs.

She shook herself, clearing her head, and then dashed across the yard and through the stream to help him inside.

“Let me help you.” She said, slipping under his arm to shoulder some of his weight off his injured leg.

He grunted in pain, trying to shake her off. “Don’t bother, I’m fine.”

“No!” She insisted, wrapping an arm around his waist to better brace herself under him and keep him upright. “You saved my life, let me help you!”

Without another word they slowly hobbled inside, and she helped him sit as comfortably as possible in one of the softer chairs in their sitting room.

“Stay here, I’ll go get my medicines and bandages.”

“I said don’t-“

“Stay!”

Her grandfather kept such a vast array of medicines, tinctures and ointments that taking all of them on such short notice the night of her marriage would have been impossible, but Kagome hadn’t been able to leave all of them, and she had made sure to grab treatments for injuries. She gathered them up, grabbed a few lengths of clean bandages, stopped in the kitchen for a pitcher of water and a rag, and then kneeled in front of Yash’s chair and arranged her supplies.

“First, swallow this. It won’t help with the pain of what I’m about to do, but it will help you sleep through the night anyway.”

She held a small bottle up to his lips and he let her pour it down his throat, grimacing at the taste. When she was sure he’d swallowed a sufficient amount, she got started with his leg, taking off his shoe and rolling his bloody pant leg up and wincing at the angry bite marks around his ankle. He hissed under his breath as the cloth of his pants pulled free of the puncture wounds, but he remained silent as she gently patted the wounded area clean. When she was satisfied that enough blood and debris had been wiped away, she opened the first jar, a sharp smelling antiseptic that would be necessary in fending off infection.

He sneezed, and the ears laying flat in his hair and the claws she politely ignored growing from his toes led her to believe his nose must be sensitive. Once she scooped out enough to cover his wounds, she put the cap back on the jar to limit the stench in the air as much as possible.

Slowly dabbing it onto and around the bite holes, Kagome kept her touch firm but gentle. He’d tensed up from the sting of the antiseptic, she would try to keep his pain down as low as it could get.

Once the antiseptic was on, she pulled out a mixture that would aide in healing while limiting scarring, and then wrapped his leg in a bandage. His pants were not fit to be pulled back down as caked in blood and dust as they were, so she left them rolled up to his knee, trying not to think about how he would get them off later.

She hesitated for just a moment, he was still bleeding from the wounds across his ribs, so his shirt would have to come off, and she knew it would cause him a great deal of pain. His ears were still pinned back, and one fang slipped over his lip, which he was biting to stifle his groans of pain. His hands were covered in blood as well, long, pointed claws coated in either his own lifeblood, or the wolves.

He looked fierce and deadly, but she found that she didn’t feel in any danger at all.

“Yash,” she said softy, and he slitted open one golden eye her way. “I need to get to your ribs now... I’ll have to remove your shirt. Can you lift your arm?”

He took a deep, steadying breath and attempted to raise his arm above his head, but then the claws of his other hand punctured the upholstered arm of the chair and he growled in agony.

“Shit. Dammit. Just cut it off.”

“Okay. I can do that. Just give me a minute.”

She gathered up her pitcher of water to rinse and refill, and then stepped back into her room to retrieve her scissors.

He almost seemed to be asleep when she returned, but the subtly pinched lines around his eyes proved that he was simply trying very hard to school his features.

‘Let’s just get this over with so he can rest.’

His shirt cut easily away, though she had to be extra tender with the bits stuck in the oozing claw marks carved deeply into his flesh. Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks as he growled and whimpered like a kicked puppy, and she could already see the earliest signs of infection around the inflamed edges of his torn skin.

“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault Yash. I should have never been in the woods so late.” She murmured, calmly and gently cleansing the angry skin on his side and applying her medicines. She wrapped the bandages around his middle, and then he slumped backwards in the chair, adrenaline gone and strength spent from clenching against the pain for so long.

Kagome let him rest. She would need to move him to his bed to sleep, but first, she could make him more comfortable.

She cut his bloody pants leg off at the knee. This might very well be the last wear he got out of them, but maybe she could use them as a pattern to make him some more. It would certainly not repay him for what he’d done for her tonight.

She discarded the bloody cloth and then wiped his hands clean of all the blood drying to them.

Finally, she retrieved her comb from her room and unbraided Yash’s bloody hair. In a new pitcher of clean water, she dunked the red, sticky ends and rinsed them until they shone pure white again, and then she ran her comb through from root to tip until the snares and tangles were gone.

“Alright Yash, we’ve got to go now. You need to rest.”

“Mmmkay.” Without a fight he allowed her to shoulder his weight again, but with her sleeping medicine taking such strong affect, he was even heavier than he’d been earlier.

She was never so thankful to not live in a large house. She didn’t have far to drag him before they were stumbling into his room and falling into the bed.

“Alright, here we go Yash. Let’s tuck you in so you can rest, okay?” Once he was as comfortable as she could get him, he grabbed her wrist before she could leave, and though his eyes were hazy and unseeing, his quiet voice was clear enough.

“Stay. Please. Stay with me.”

She chewed her lip, apprehensive, but then he whimpered again, a sad, puppyish sound that cut through her heart and soul like a hot knife through butter and she couldn’t deny him.

“Of course, Yash. If that’s what you need.”

She climbed in next to him, sitting up against his headboard, and with the last of his strength he rolled to his side and nuzzled into her lap before falling into what she hoped was a deep, healing sleep.

* * *

The bushes in front of him just looked like a mess of branches and thorns. The leaves were a nice color, he supposed, but hardly worth the fuss they’d been putting into them.

“I still don’t understand.”

“You will. In just a few more weeks, you’ll see why we’ve been out here everyday.”

“If you say so.”

His ear flicked as a nail scratched at its base, and even though it felt nice, he still ducked away and wrinkled his nose.

“Mom! Don’t treat me like a baby.”

She laughed, so bright and joyful, and he loved the sound of it. Nothing made him happier than his mother's smile. His tongue lolled out of his mouth and he panted like he always did when he felt so safe and content, and his mother laughed all the more.

“How can I not when you’re still such a cute little puppy, my boy? Now, pick up your scissors and let’s get back to pruning these bushes.”

Many hours of work and play later, after a forced bath to scrub dirt from claws and puppy ears, a dinner with too many vegetables he didn’t want to eat, and a restricting set of pajamas, Inuyasha laid sleepily in his bed as his mother read him his nightly story from one of her many books. Her voice always soothed him; no matter how sure he was he wasn’t ready for bed, story time never failed to tucker him right out.

His lids were heavy now, and his thoughts had slowed down to a crawl, but as she closed the book, he pushed for just a few more moments with her.

“Mom, if we make those plants pretty like you said, will papa come visit again?”

“Oh.” She said, startled and sad but unsurprised. It had been a long time since they’d seen him.

“No my darling. I just want to give us something nice to look at, that’s all. Now, get some sleep okay? There will be more time to play tomorrow.” She leaned down and kissed his forehead, but when she turned to leave his room, a small, clawed hand closed around her wrist.

“Mommy, will you stay with me? Please?”

Misty eyed, she nodded and climbed in next to him, cuddling his body close, relishing his little sigh of sleepy contentment, and they walked into dreamland together.

* * *

When his eyes opened again, Inuyasha wasn’t sure for a moment where he was.

He wasn’t on his usual pillow, that was certain, but when he tried to sit up and look around, searing pain erupted from his side and stopped him cold.

“Holy shit, what-“

“Oh, you’re awake. Don’t move around too much, I don’t want your wounds to start bleeding again.”

He yelped and jumped up from the bed, pushing the pain away long enough to stand and retreat to his dresser which he leaned against, clutching his side and gasping for breath.

“What... what... what the hell are you doing in here? What’s going on?”

Kagome stretched and yawned, as calm as the day was long, and it drove his confusion deeper into his mind.

“You asked me to stay last night.”

“I did?!”

“Yes. You were in a lot of pain.”

They stared at each other in a silent stand off, Inuyasha’s eyes wild and wide, while Kagome tried to emit as much peace and confidence as she could, but so much wasn’t making sense.

His disguise was gone, his ears and eyes and claws were exposed in the bright light of day, and she was in hisbed instead of back in town drawing up a mob.

“Why are you still here?”

“Well you were cuddling me pretty tight. I tried to get up once or twice for some water or a book, but you wouldn’t let me go.”

Bewildered, Inuyasha stared hard out the window, trying to let the scrambled pieces of his mind settle into some form of coherency.

“No... I mean... why are you still here.”

He was too distracted, she slid off the bed and walked up to him without catching his attention once, and he jumped so hard his leg throbbed in its bandages when she laid a gentle hand on his cheek.

“Come on. Let me change your bandages and give you something for pain. Then I’ll make breakfast and we can talk, okay? I’m not going anywhere.”

She walked out of his room then, and he watched her go blankly before his mind caught up enough to push him out after her.

She let him stew in blessed silence while she cleaned and patched his wounds again, and then he stared at the table top in the kitchen while she cooked them some food.

A new panic took over when he realized he’d have to eat in front of her now, but she’d seen his fangs already, so he wouldn’t have to try to hide them.

When his plate of food was laid before him he wasn’t even sure if he could eat anyway. His mouth felt like it was full of sand and his ears burned on the top of his head. He pushed some bits around with his fork and stared unblinking, hoping something may just swallow him whole and save him from this whole mess.

Things had been going so well, relatively, and it was all about to go down the drain. He managed a small, meager bite, and then Kagome finally broke their silence.

“I just want to start off by saying... I don’t care if you’re a fairy.”

Inuyasha choked on his food, took a quick drink of his water to clear his throat, and then cautiously met her eyes.

“Come again?”

“It’s just, you’ve been nothing but kind to me since I got here. I’m not suddenly scared that you’ll hurt me just because I know you’re a fairy now. I’m not afraid of you.”

He stared at her again and tossed her words around for a moment, weighing the potential damage it might cause if he took the easy way out and just let her believe that. It wouldn’t be the first time someone thought he was a fairy, it was an easy enough mistake to make, but her eyes were shining with such trust and acceptance that he wilted. His head dropped forward in defeat, and he covered his face with his hands to hide for just one more moment before bravely meeting her eyes and setting the entire record straight.

“I’m not a fairy.”

“Pardon?”

He sighed and looked away, into his kitchen full of all the little touches she’d added since he married her, new curtains and rags and vases of flowers, bits of breakfast prep still scattered over the counter, new signs of home that hadn’t been there before her, and he wondered how long they would stick around.

“I’m not a fairy. I’m just... I’m just a man. Both of my parents were humans.”

“How is that possible?”

So far there was no disgust or reproach in her voice, so he soldiered on.

“My mom... my mom was born in a mansion, the daughter of some stuck up nobility or something, and when she came of age he managed to get her a job as a lady in waiting to the queen. Sounds like bullshit to me but it was supposed to be a big honor or something. Anyway, my mother was really kind, and really really beautiful, and it wasn’t long after she got to the palace that the king noticed. They... had an affair, and she ended up pregnant with me. The queen found out of course. She apparently dabbled in dark magic because she cursed me to be “more loyal than the dog who calls himself my father.” And it worked. I was born... like this. And my father put my mother and I in this cottage far away from anyone else. He named me Inuyasha.”

He chanced a look in her direction, expecting revulsion, horror, tears of terror, but some of the tension that had held him stiff eased away when he saw none of those things.

Her eyes did glisten with tears, but she reached across the table to grab his hand and stroke his fingers.

“I get it. I get it now, you’re part dog. She _cursed_ you to be _part dog_. Is that why you’ve stayed out here? Is it easier to live amongst the fairies?”

“N-no.” He began with a stutter, the feeling of his hand, glove free and claws gleaming being held by someone else was foreign, but nice, and his face heated. “Uh, fairies can tell that I’m not one of them, so they don’t like me either. I stay here because it’s the only home I’ve had. I’m close enough to a village to make a living, though far enough that no one bothers me. It’s lonely, but it’s safe. Or, it was lonely... before you.”

Her cheeks bloomed a charming shade of pink, and she ducked her head with a shy smile. He couldn’t believe the way this conversation was going. Not only was his wife not running screaming for the hills, but he’d have to tell Miroku he was right.

‘ _That bastard is insufferable enough.’_

“I can’t imagine how much it must have hurt the queen to know her husband had betrayed her, but it wasn’t right to punish an innocent baby for someone else’s choices. I’m sorry you and your mother had to be so alone because of it. You didn’t deserve that.”

Speechless, he watched as Kagome stood and rounded the table, standing before him and softly framing his face between her hands.

“I know not everyone understands you. It’s not safe for you to walk around freely everywhere. But I want you to stop covering up at home. I think... I think you’re beautiful, Inuyasha.”

His eyes widened, and his heart beat so fast and so hard she could probably hear it, and then her tears sprinkled across his cheeks as her lips pressed softly to his forehead, and for the first time since his mother passed on and left him behind, he felt like he was home.

**Author's Note:**

> My new fairytale AU! I have no sort of update schedule for this, but I’m posting it anyway, we’ll see how this goes.


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